


Mother(s)'s Day

by choriarty



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Alcohol, Clones, F/F, Fluff, Getting Together, Mother's Day, Rick and Morty Minibang 2020, Selfcest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:40:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27058867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choriarty/pseuds/choriarty
Summary: Beth is enjoying her life out in the endless expanse of space when her father calls her. Turns out that, now that there are two of her, Beth's kids want to celebrate Mother's Day. The problem is that Beth has some less-than platonic feelings for her own double.Will she be able to get out of going back to Earth?Does she even want to?= = =My entry for the Rick and Morty Minibang 2020!
Relationships: Beth Smith/Beth Smith (Rick and Morty)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17
Collections: RaM Mini Bang 2020





	Mother(s)'s Day

_"Beth!! Watch out!"_

Beth barely had enough time to reinforce her ship's shields before an explosion on her left sent it rolling. She grunted as she was thrown around, saved from a concussion or worse only because of the seat belt. Gripping the wheel hard enough to turn her knuckles white, she wrestled control back and righted herself. 

"You still with us, Beth?" a voice came over the radio. 

"It'll take more than that to knock me out," Beth said. "Thanks for the heads up, Vinny."

"Can't have our _'Great Leader'_ hurting a hair on her pretty head, now can we?" 

Beth smiled. A smile that only grew larger as she locked onto their pursuers' ship and fired. There was a satisfying explosion as one of her projectiles hit its mark. The two ships chased each other once more, spinning through space, until Beth got the upper hand one final time. Her targeting systems chirped as it found its mark and Beth - 

Slipped when a loud ringing made her jump. Her shot went wide as the ear-piercing sound echoed inside the cramped cockpit. 

There was only one of her devices that made a noise that annoying. 

_"What the hell was that??"_ a different, younger voice demanded over the comms. "You had them right in your sights and you missed!" 

Beth only replied "I need to take a call." 

"You _WHAT?!_ You can't just--"

"It's my dad," Beth explained unenthusiastically, already rummaging for her cell phone. 

"I don't care if it's the Queen of--" 

A different, significantly softer voice interrupted. "Your dad?" they asked. "Go ahead, Beth. We'll take care of the rest of this mess." 

Vinny’s deeper tone came over the comms. “Listen, rookie, I know you’re new here, but Beth and her Dad ha--”

_Click!_ Beth flicked the switch and turned off her radio. She steered her ship off and let Vinny lead the pack as she took up the rear. Like this, she could still provide backup while distracted at the wheel. The cell phone was still blaring, only stopping its ear-bleeding noise when she pressed the green button. 

“Kinda busy right now, Dad,” Beth said.

Rick Sanchez just sighed, the sound of his voice coming through grainy as the signal travelled across the cosmos. His daughter recognized it as his _‘I don’t want to be having his conversation’_ sigh. “L-Listen, sweetie, I know this phone is only for emergencies, but…”

Sounds of a scuffle interrupted Rick, and for one heart-stopping moment Beth thought that this truly was a life threatening emergency. Her hands gripped the wheel as her brain went in circles. What was happening over there? Was her family safe? Were they being attacked because of her again? Beth’s hand instinctively reached for the controls in order to turn her ship around. 

Just as quickly as the scuffle started, it ended, and the winners took hold of the phone. 

“Mom!” both of Beth’s children called for her in unison. 

“Kids? Is everyone alright?” Beth asked.

Rick was swearing up a storm in the background, his voice barely audible over Summer and Morty’s talking. “We made Grandpa Rick call you,” Morty said before his sister interrupted him with “It’s totally an emergency!”

“One at a time, please! What’s happening?”

Summer was the quickest. “It’s _Mother’s Day_ , and you’re not here!”

Beth must have gotten whiplash from the change in atmosphere, because she could feel herself reeling. On one hand, she was thankful that it wasn’t anything serious. On the other- she was forced to squash down her annoyance at being interrupted for such a flippant reason.

It was just like her family to do something like this. She missed them with her entire being.

“We never celebrate Mother’s Day,” Beth said.

“Y-Yeah, well…” Morty replied. “We figured, since we have two moms now, there’s twice the reason to actually do something.”

“Are you sure this isn’t about my promise to give Summer flying lessons?”

“It’s been two months!!” Summer protested loudly, while Morty told her to “Shut up, Summer!!”

The sound of bickering had Beth feeling the sharp pain of separation - so sharp that it was all too easy to forget how she had been avoiding her family. 

Specifically, avoiding the other Beth. 

“Anyways, that’s not the point,” Morty continued after he fought off his sister. “We, uh, prepared something for you at home.”

"Just for me, huh?”

“W-Well, for you and mom-- our other mom.”

“I…" Beth worried at her lip. "I can't, sorry. I'm busy killing someone right now."

Rick scoffed in the background of the call. "That won't take long." 

"Oh my God, you're killing someone?" Summer asked excitedly. "Who is it?" 

"Just some asshole we found out was a double agent." Beth shrugged even though no one could see her. 

"So he was working for the other guys?" 

"Not exactly. He was feeding us information, but we had known from the beginning that he was also leaking our stuff." 

"Then why are you trying to kill him now?" 

"Because we found out that he had been leaking information about us and the other guys to some third party - and three was just too much at that point." 

Morty told his sister to stop changing the subject as he took the radio from her again. "So- so when you're done killing this guy, can you come home?" 

Beth struggled to come up with an excuse. “It’s not that simple…”

The sound of more fumbling with the phone. “Just-- Just come back to Earth, okay?” Rick grumbled. “These twerps forced me to call you… and also set up a bunch of junk. They probably won't shut up until you agree to their - their demands."

“Dad, I can’t just drop everything and come h--” Beth was about to say ‘home’, but was it still her home? “-- back to Earth.”

“Sure you can. I-- we fucked those bug bastards up real-real good. It’s probably quiet as all shit over there. You can spare a few days to come entertain your spoiled kids.”

Beth couldn’t help but smile at the sound of her children cussing Rick out. God, she missed them all. Besides, Rick wasn’t exactly wrong about it being slow in the rebellion. “Okay, fine. You’ve convinced me. I’ll be there in a couple of hours.”

Beth could handle a few days being home… right? She just had to keep herself in check. Control her emotions. 

Just, you know, stop lusting after her own double so obviously. Easy.

* * *

Standing in front of her own house, a ratty duffle bag slung over one shoulder, Beth felt more uncomfortable than she imagined. Hell, she had felt more comfortable when she broke in to kill her own father. Beth had barely stepped out of her ship before the front door swung open and her kids ran out. As they leapt into her arms, an out of place sense of normalcy washed over her.

The only thing that alluded to the fact that this was indeed not normal was Beth. Not herself, but the one standing in the doorway. 

But Beth's life hadn't been anything close to 'normal' for a while. 

The other Beth looked… _Wow._ She looked great. Amazing, even. The stay-on-Earth Beth was wearing a dress that go-to-space Beth didn't remember buying. It was a lighter dress made for summer, with cream and blue stripes. Her hair looked great too. She must have gotten it cut a few inches - and did she use a hair curler…? 

"Mom! Are you listening?" 

Beth was dragged back into reality as her daughter waved a hand in her face. She pushed it away and opened her mouth to make up an excuse, but Morty spoke for her. “She’s- she’s probably tired from doing cool rebel stuff.”

“You got it, Morty,” Beth rubbed his head, smiling when he squawked. She missed them while she was in space, but it never hit her as hard as it did when he visited her home planet. No one but her would know that she had been avoiding coming home. All she had to do was act normal and quit staring at her double all the time.

The Beth standing in the doorway smiled at her and- wow, that new outfit made her look younger too. "Why don't you kids ever greet _me_ that enthusiastically?" 

Summer rolled her eyes. "Because we see you every day, mom." 

"You see _her_ every day, too. We have the same face." 

"That's not how it works and you know it!" 

It was almost like watching a home video. Beth had known that face to be her own for so long, seeing it smile and banter with her children… It was difficult for her brain to come to terms with the reality that this woman wasn't her. 

Looking at her family then… Beth realized how underdressed she was in comparison. She was still in her flight suit, greasy from maintenance and most likely soaked in sweat. There was an urge to lift her arm and sniff - just to check - but she stopped herself. 

Beth's eyes locked with her double's and as she caught a hint of a grin, Beth knew that she read her mind. "Let's go inside," the double said. "I want to show you some new additions I made to our wardrobe." 

She followed her kids into the house as they continued to chatter, whispering _'Thank you.'_ as she passed the other Beth. 

"No problem," she replied, her eyes twinkling in a conspiratorial way. "I know how much I hate wearing a uniform." 

It was true. Beth remembered how the first thing she used to do when she got home from the veterinary office was change out of her work outfit. That memory, much like the inside of the house, had nostalgia overwhelming her. Even now it still felt as uncanny valley as the first time she had come back. Everything was different - and yet exactly the same. 

Hung in the hallway, a new picture stood out among the old. Beth recognized it from the last time she had visited, two weeks ago. Morty and Summer stood in the front while the three adults were behind them. From right to left: Jerry, the other Beth, and finally herself. 

"By the way, where's Jerry?" Beth asked. 

"He's visiting his parents this week," her double waved a hand dismissively. 

_'Thank God,'_ thought Beth - though she kept these thoughts to herself. The other Beth had her reasons for getting back together with him. 

What the hell those reasons were, she could never guess. 

The last time Beth had been in the master bedroom had been when it was, well, still hers. Now it belonged to another version of herself. Jerry's stuff had been moved back in a few months ago so there were obviously some differences. 

"Pick anything you want," Beth's double said and threw open the wardrobe doors. They must have had spring cleaning recently, because a lot of old clothes Beth remembered were gone. They had all been replaced by newer, nicer outfits. 

"When did you get all this...?" Beth asked, rubbing the fabric of a green dress between her fingers. 

The other Beth shrugged, but there was a slight dusting of pink on her cheeks. "Oh, maybe a couple of weeks ago… Summer helped me pick these out. You know how she is; always telling us that we need to stop dressing like a _'midlife crisis wine mom'."_

"Even though we are one?" Beth smirked. 

"That's what I told her!" her double laughed. It looked good on her. "Anyways, go nuts. Everything in here will probably fit you, since we're the same person… although I'm pretty sure your arms are meatier than mine now…" 

Beth told herself she was imagining how her double's voice lowered. "Are you sure? Some of this is pretty nice…" 

"I mean, we _are_ the same person." 

Right… the same person… It wasn't as if Beth forgot that they were cloned from each other. It was hard **not** to, since they had the same face. But being clones… made them exactly the same person, didn't it? Not like some alternate version of each other. Not someone she could… 

Nevermind. 

Beth's double left her alone in the room with the wardrobe full of clothes and her thoughts - thoughts which Beth quickly shoved into the deep recesses of her mind. Picking out an outfit was almost meditative. Choosing something for its appearance was a luxury that she hadn't been afforded since she had left home. 

Not caring much for fashion, Beth had something thrown together and laid out on the bed within five minutes. She was just about to shrug it on when - no… that was a silly idea. It'd be childish, right? It'd be embarrassing… 

But before she could stop herself, Beth grabbed an outfit that matched her double's. Nothing too obvious. Just a white tank top, summer jeans… and the blazer that must have come along with the dress. 

Okay maybe it was a bit obvious. They might look like twins that got forced into matching outfits by their mother - but it was fine. Totally fine. Not weird. 

The other possibility, the one where they may look like a couple, filled Beth's cheeks with warmth. 

As she came down the stairs and saw the same blush on her double's face, she knew her outfit choice was the right one. 

"Hurry up!" Summer grabbed Beth and dragged her into the living room, while Morty grabbed their other mom. Both of them were pushed onto the couch. On the coffee table were several wrapped gifts and a tray of baked goods. Rick sat in the armchair, nursing a beer. 

"We, uh, made these for you," Morty said. "There are brownies and two types of cookies… Also we have lemon squares in the fridge." 

"Aww, you guys…" Beth cooed. 

Her double just gave them a knowing look. "So this is why I couldn't have any yesterday. You told me it was for a party." 

"I didn't lie!" Summer said. "This is totally a party. I mean, normally if I was at a party with only like, 5 people, I'd say it was lame… but I'll make an exception." 

"Thanks, Summer…" Morty rolled his eyes. "You-you know… you helped plan this party." 

"That's why it isn't lame, jackass." 

Rick finally spoke up for the first time since Beth arrived. "Shut up and give your moms their gifts already." 

By the way her kids were grinning from ear-to-ear, Beth knew that they had gotten something snarky. Morty handed her a blue bag with yellow paper, while Summer gave Earth-Beth a yellow bag with blue paper. She had to give them credit when it came to color coordination. 

After removing the gift paper, the first thing Beth pulled out was a wine glass - only it was anything but an ordinary one. It must have been at least three times larger than any of the glasses in the kitchen cupboard, and in white cursive were the words: _MOM'S PROBLEM SOLVING GLASS._

Beth snorted at the same time as her double, and looking over she could see that she had gotten a similar gift; only hers said _FINALLY! A WINE GLASS THAT FITS MY NEEDS!_

Both Beths broke out into laughter- which only became louder as they pulled out the next parts of their gift. Two white t-shirts with the text _'AT MY AGE I NEED GLASSES'_ above an image of a full wine glass. One shirt was a red while the other was a white. 

Summer and Morty smiled and glanced at each other before looking back to their mothers. "So- so you like them?" Morty asked. 

Both Beths shared a look themselves, the answer obvious. "We love them," Earth-Beth said. 

"Put them on!" Summer whipped out her phone. "And pose with the glasses while you're at it."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later found the two Beths wearing their new gifts, Earth-Beth with the white and Space-Beth with the red. 

It didn’t take long for all of the sweets to be demolished. Not even the lemon squares were safe. Summer and Morty were catching Beth up on the things she missed while she was in space. 

(Beth still didn’t give a crap about their teenage drama, but it was nice to listen to. It was basically the same stuff as the drama within the rebellion, except apparently her kids handled it better.) 

The only person who seemed to not be having a good time was Rick, who was still pissed that Summer grabbed the last brownie before he could. No one paid attention to how he pouted and fiddled with one of his inventions, knees pulled up to his chest on the armchair. 

“Aren’t you worried about, you know… dad?” Beth whispered to her double.

“Nah, he’s fine,” she said. “If he was _actually_ pissed, he wouldn’t be here.”

“Fffuck you, sweetie,” Rick hissed. “I-I don’t need to be here. There are aliens all over the goddamn multiverse that want me at their party.”

“Then why don’t you go to one of their parties?” Earth Beth asked smugly.

“Maybe I fucking will!” Rick pulled out some high-tech pager from his lab coat. “In-In fact, I’m getting a call right now from, uh, Madame Orgalorg. She’s basically the Lady Gaga, of space, but a hundred times better.”

Summer rolled her eyes and scoffed. “That’s, like, impossible.”

“Oh yeah? W-Well, her version of ARTPOP didn’t get fuckin’ slept on.”

That made Summer actually gasp. Meanwhile both Beths looked at each other in confusion. “I have no idea what any of that means,” Beth said. “Besides, I don’t _hear_ that thing ringing.”

“It’s on silent mode, duh!” Rick said. “Do I look like one of those assholes that keeps the ringer on?” He pressed a button on the sci-fi pager and brought it up to his ear. “H-Hey, babe. What’s up? You need me to crash another party for you? Anything for--”

Suddenly an obnoxious beeping cut through Rick’s voice. The entire living room was silent as they watched his device glow and vibrate against the side of his head. Both Beths covered their grins with a hand, while Summer was freely smiling like the cat that got the cream. Morty snorted loudly.

“Shut- shut the fuck up, Morty,” Rick said. He pressed a button on the space pager and it finally stopped making noises. He scowled and held it out as a holographic screen emerged from it, covered in an alien language. Summer snickered and Rick flipped her the bird. After a moment of scanning over whatever it said, Rick sighed and closed it. “R-Right, Morty. You’re with me. Let’s go.”

“Fuck off, Grandpa Rick,” Morty frowned. “I wanna spend time with Mom.”

Earth Beth looked at her double. “It’s fine. I’m sure your other mom will still be here. Won’t you?”

If anyone else had said this to Beth, she would have told them to fuck themselves. No one tried to emotionally manipulate her with that kind of talk and survived. The fact that Jerry was still alive was because she had basically been the patron saint of tolerance and patience with him. 

But… the other Beth wasn’t really trying to manipulate her. They were the same person, so she already knew that Beth would have stayed no matter what. Hell, she had only left her family in the first place because she knew that she was technically still with them- just in the form of a clone. Knowing that her kids wanted her specifically, not just any old Beth, well…

“You know me so well,” Beth smiled at her double. It was supposed to be like smiling into a mirror, right? Then why didn’t it feel like that? She had to force herself not to look away like some flustered high school girl.

Summer perked up. “Then I wanna go, too!”

“Haven’t you ever heard of three being a crowd, Summer?” Rick griped. However, his complaints were ultimately ignored.

“D-Dibs on the front seat,” Morty said before bolting towards the garage. 

“You always get the front seat, you little shit!” Summer sprinted after him. Rick rubbed his face with one hand and shuffled after them.

Suddenly, both of the Beths were alone. Truly alone. Something they hadn’t been since they were stolen away by the Galactic Federation.

“So…” Beth trailed off. It was supposed to be awkward for comedic purposes, but she was smiling too much to pull it off properly. Her double was smiling just as much right back at her.

“So…?” Earth Beth repeated. Her grin was mesmerizing.

“Want to break in our new gifts?”

The double laughed. Rick must have cloned them wrong, because Beth swore that her own laugh didn’t sound as musical as Earth-Beth’s. “You’re me! Do you even need to ask?”

That is how both Beths ended up sitting on the roof together, nursing a smooth red in their new glasses. The easy smiles they wore had nothing to do with the funny words on their shirts or cups, nor the soft colours of the sun dipping beneath the horizon-- but everything to do with the company they kept.

“Okay… I gotta ask,” Earth Beth said. The way her eyes glowed had nothing to do with the sunset. “How fucking _cool_ is space?”

Beth could only laugh, or else she would have said something stupid, like _‘God, you’re so cute. How are we the same person?’_

She told the story about the one time she had hijacked a galactic freighter with only a lighter and her shoelace. Then she told her about when her and her rebel mates were stranded on Terran 8 and had to eat one of their friends (but he was okay because he was actually just a brain in a microchip and he had implanted himself in a cow a week earlier). Finally, there was the time that she had found a giant spider in the washroom- but it turned out to be a Galactic Federation spy.

“But that’s enough about work drama,” Beth waved her hand a bit too much to be sober. “How’s Earth?”

“Oh…” Beth’s double turned bashful at the question. Her cheeks were already flushed from the wine, but she couldn’t hide how she looked away and rubbed her arm. “It’s not interesting compared to your adventures…”

“Maybe,” Beth said. “But I want to know what my family is getting up to.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say, because it got Earth-Beth to smile again. She told Beth about how their dad was treating her differently ever since The Incident. They had had some ‘talks’ outside of the counselor's office. She said that he was actually really sweet, that he wanted to be better to her than he had been for all these years. Beth felt a sharp spike of envy, which was swiftly snuffed out as her double placed a hand on top of hers. “He feels the same way about you,” she said. “He’s going to have this talk with you tonight. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I figured that keeping a secret from us is what started this whole thing.”

The tight feeling in Beth’s chest loosened, and she turned her hand over to grasp her double’s back. It felt good-- it felt _right._

Their hands stayed entwined as Earth-Beth talked more about their family and what Beth had missed. The kids were doing well in school, and she had encouraged them to try some hobbies outside of school and home, saying her and Jerry would pay for it. Morty hadn’t taken up the offer yet, needing to think about it more, but Summer had joined a Krav Maga class. Even though the offer wasn’t really for him, Jerry had taken initiative and joined a cooking class.

Beth was taking a sip from her glass, eyes on the sunset but ears still focused on the calming sound of her double’s voice, when she noticed how Earth-Beth trailed off in the middle of a story. She looked over and saw how her double stared off into the distance. 

“Do you miss it?” she asked.

“Miss what?” 

“Earth… your job… our family.”

Beth didn’t hesitate to answer: “Every day.” 

\-- But her answer included one more thing that hadn’t been listed. Something very close to her, close enough to feel the body heat radiate off of as the sun finally finished setting and the air became cooler. Close enough to touch. Close enough to hold hands…

“Well,” Earth-Beth turned away from the horizon and back to her double. “You can stay here whenever you want. It’s your home, too.”

“Thanks,” Beth could feel her cheeks heat up. She tried to convince herself it was because they had finished off an entire wine bottle together. “If you ever feel like kicking ass in outer space, I could always use another badass woman with a head on her shoulders.”

Earth-Beth threw back her head and laughed, the sight making Beth feel even more drunk than she was in reality. She couldn’t help but laugh in return and hoped that her double didn’t notice how often she had been staring.

“Let’s climb down. I’m starting to get eaten alive out here,” Earth-Beth said. Beth slapped the mosquito on her arm and followed.

The house was still quiet and empty inside, neither Rick nor the kids having come home in the Beths’ absence. They walked in comfortable silence through the living room and into the kitchen. The light switch was on the other side of the room and neither felt like parting for long enough to turn it on.

They were only illuminated by the artificial light coming from the parlour and the street lights outside. In the darkness they bumped into each other, on purpose only half of the time, sending them into fits of tipsy giggles. 

Beth reached for another bottle of wine from the top cabinet, her relaxed and warm muscles immediately tensing as her fingers brushed another. She looked away from the drink and found herself very close to, well, herself. Even in the dark she could see how her double’s eyes widened in similar realization.

“I…” Earth-Beth paused to think about her next words, and Beth stared shamelessly as her tongue poked out to lick at her lips. “I hope space hasn’t changed me too much… because otherwise I’m gonna look like an idiot for seeing signs that aren’t there.”

The next thing Beth knew, she was being kissed. 

She was unsurprised that it tasted like wine, but surprised that it made the wine taste even better. Had the bottle they opened together been so sweet when she was sipping it from her glass? Had it been this smooth and warm when they held hands on the roof? Beth was starting to understand her father’s love of experimentation, because she felt like she needed to test this theory-- by kissing her double more.

Their hands navigated away from the bottle in the cupboard and found each other again, fingers entwining like celtic knots. Beth felt her double begin to pull away and on instinct she chased after her. She followed her backwards until Beth pushed her back against the countertop, causing her double to gasp. The sound sparked a deeply hidden desire to flare up and she dared to flick her tongue against her double’s lips. It happened so fast that Beth didn’t think before doing it, and was afraid that she pushed too far--

Though that was swiftly proven not to be the case as Earth-Beth moaned and returned with her own tongue, plundering Space-Beth’s mouth as if she was searching for hidden treasure. Beth was taken aback by how assertive her double was being-- but that didn’t mean that she was complaining. 

Beth had lost track of time when they finally parted. All she knew was that the spot on her hip where her double had placed a hand was nice and warm, and the skin between their shared grip was borderline scalding and sticky with sweat. She watched the light of the outside street lamps glint off of the string of saliva still connecting their mouths. 

“Earth girl has some guts,” Beth chuckled, her voice low and rough with desire.

Her double responded with a quiet laugh of her own, and Beth was reminded of wind chimes in spring. “Thanks. I’m trying to be like a braver version of myself that I know of.”

“We’re the same person,” Beth said, their faces already gravitating back towards each other. It should have felt weird admitting what they were, maybe even ruin the mood. But it didn’t. “You’re already brave.”

Neither of them needed to say more.

* * *

Rick and the kids didn't return that night, which wasn't a surprise in itself. It was normal for them to be gone for more than a day. That just meant more time for Beth and Beth together. 

On previous visits, Space-Beth had taken the bed in the spare room. This time, both Beths stumbled together towards the master suite, giggling like school girls as they held hands. 

They tumbled into the bed together, Earth-Beth tugging at her double's jacket until she shrugged it off (albeit clumsily). Both of them gravitated towards each other again as two magnets would, Beth smiling goofily as she imagined the metallic _'click'_ when their lips met. 

Unfortunately for Beth, her body seemed to remember how tired she was from the trip to Earth as soon as she hit the bed. Her grip on Earth-Beth's waist began to droop and weaken and her kisses became molasses. 

"Sorry…" Beth mumbled, when it was obvious to both of them that she was going to pass out any second. 

Her double chuckled and tucked some hair behind Beth's ear, which had become messy during their makeout session. Beth returned the favour, but found herself stopping once she had a lock of curly hair between her fingers. She twirled it around absent-mindedly, not noticing the besotted expression her double wore. 

"You know…" Earth-Beth said. "I _may_ have had a small part in Jerry's trip this week." 

"Oh?" Beth hummed. 

"I wanted to spend time with you." 

"I didn't," Beth blurted out- immediately scrambling to explain. "I mean-- I thought that if I spent time with you, it would be obvious how I felt…" 

"Only a little bit, but I do have the advantage of knowing all of our giveaways." 

"Exactly." 

"Is it as bad as you thought? Having me know?" 

"Not really. I didn't want to be creepy since you're with Jerry again." Beth yawned. "Besides, fucking a clone of yourself is something that Dad would do, so that automatically put me in denial." 

Earth-Beth threw her head back and laughed, cutting through the quiet atmosphere. "I can't blame you for that!"

They returned to a comfortable silence, and Beth felt herself slipping into dreamland until her double murmured. It was loud enough to pull her back into wakefulness, but too quiet to understand. "What did you say..?” Beth mumbled. 

"Do you think we're wrong? For desiring each other, even though we're the same person?" 

Beth didn't know how to answer that exactly, so she thought about it. She thought and thought. It was practically a miracle that she didn't fall asleep in the middle of thinking. 

"I don't think we're exactly the same person anymore," Beth said slowly. "We've experienced different things and become different people. We might have been perfect clones in the very beginning… but it's been a long time since then." 

Earth-Beth didn't reply for a while. When she finally did, all she said was "Thank you." 

When Beth had waited a bit longer for more, thinking that perhaps her double was considering what to say, she turned over and found that she had actually fallen asleep. An affectionate grin snuck its way onto her face. Quietly, she scooted herself closer, careful not to wake her double as she laced their fingers together. 

As she drifted off, Beth knew that whatever they were, they would figure it out. Together.


End file.
